DVQ, Winter 2022 Ah, the holidays. The frenetic span of days between the moribund gluttony of Thanksgiving and the spastic shopping of Christmas is always a magical time. Too much food, too much wine and definitely too much family. I’m just kidding about that last bit. We had Thanksgiving at the cousin’s house and it was wonderful. Holiday venue selection is a blood-sport in this family; we dodged Thanksgiving, but apparently there is no way we can avert having everyone for Christmas. It is, after all, our turn as all our female relatives have reminded us with presentations, charts, and threats of violence should they detect the least prevarication. At the farm it’s the end of another season. The homestead is buttoned up for winter, the machinery stowed, and awaiting maintenance. The ponies grow hairy, [...]

DVQ Q1 Countrymen, Colleagues, and Customers; I was reading through previous issues of this newsletter in order to remember what I’d written so as to not be a bore. I live in mortal terror of being found a bore. I am of an age that I can reasonably surmise that everyone I know, and some I don’t, have heard every anecdote, war story, and one of the three jokes I can remember at least four times. You need not have the greatest intellect to imagine what poor Dragon Six must have to live through. I have tried to make it a mental habit that before I decide to launch into one of these chestnuts I take a quick survey of my audience and attempt to gauge how likely I am to stupefy them. More often [...]